1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to apparatus for protecting passengers from being injured in traffic accidents, and more, particularly to an air bag type of passenger protector installed in a vehicle in which an assembly for supplying a compressed gas is automatically operated in order to cause an air bag to be rapidly filled with a compressed gas in the case of a traffic accident, particularly a vehicle collision. As a result, a passenger is prevented from being directly struck against a vehicle body and protected from being injured.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known air bag type of passenger protectors installed in vehicles are generally classified into two types: an electronic type and a mechanical type.
The electronic type of passenger protector comprises a shock sensing part (wherein an electronic sensor automatically senses a mechanical shock caused by a vehicle collision and outputs a shock signal), a comparing and determining part (wherein, upon receiving the shock signal outputted from the shock sensing part, a microcomputer determines whether the sensed shock intensity exceeds a predetermined reference shock intensity) and an air bag drive part for filling an air bag with a compressed gas in response to a signal outputted from the comparing and determining part. However, this type of protector has a completed structure due to the aforementioned component parts, and this impairs the productivity and increases the manufacturing cost. As a result, this apparatus has a disadvantage in that it inevitably creates an economical burden for the user such that there is a serious problem in putting it to practical use. Furthermore, in the case of having this type of protector installed in a superannuated vehicle, or in the case of interchanging some of the component parts of the protector for others, an error in operation of the shock sensing part of the protector can occur. As a result this protector has another disadvantage in that it can not be reliably counted upon to operate in the case of occurrence of a vehicle collision. This results in the air bag being unreliably filled with the compressed gas.
A representative embodiment of the mechanical type of known passenger protector is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 91-15452 entitled "Air bag type of apparatus for protecting passengers from being mechanically shocked". The apparatus disclosed in the above Korean document is constructed such that, in response to a mechanical shock caused by a vehicle collision, a weight inertially moves to push an L-shaped lever. This in turn causes a hammer, biased by a spring, to strike a perforating pin. As it is struck by the hammer, the perforating pin punctures a compressed gas container so as to permit the compressed gas to rapidly exit the container and into an air bag through a gas flow tube connecting the container to the air bag. As a result the air bag is fully inflated with the compressed gas so as to form an air mattress type of protector for protecting the passenger from being directly struck against the vehicle body. However, it is known that this apparatus has the following disadvantages.
First, the movable weight is constructed to have a perpendicular front end so that the pushing operation thereof for the L-shaped lever is not reliably performed.
Second, there is a structural defect at a contact portion, wherein a contacting end of the L-shaped lever comes in contact with the biased hammer, so that the biased hammer is not reliably locked into or released from, the L-shaped lever.
Third, even though it is intended that the biased hammer strike the perforating pin using a return force of a spring when the hammer is released from the L-shaped lever, it in effect strikes the perforating pin with no reliability and, moreover, damages a front end of the perforating pin. This is because the hammer nearly perpendicularly strikes the perforating pin.
Fourth, the air bag is constructed to be a mattress type so that it is relatively slow to form a desired inflated shape. Furthermore, the inflated outer shape of the air bag is not coincident with the human body so that it may not prevent the passenger from being slightly injured even though it prevents the passenger from being seriously injured in the case of a vehicle collision.